Big Retail's Big Tuesday

Tuesday's trading session featured earnings reports from several notable retail giants.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT earned $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $130.94 billion.
Analysts were expecting the retail giant to earn $1.29 per share on revenue of $131.22 billion.
Of particular note, Wal-Mart's U.S. e-commerce sales rose 29.0 percent and gross merchandise value (GMV) rose 36.1 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Wal-Mart guided its first-quarter 2018 earnings per share to a range of $0.90 to $1.00 and $4.20 to $4.40 for the full year.
Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.96 per share in Q1 and $4.33 per share for the full year.
Doug McMillion, president and CEO of Wal-Mart commented: "We're moving with speed to become more of a digital enterprise and better serve customers. We had a very solid fourth quarter with U.S. comp sales growth of 1.8 percent and U.S. e-commerce GMV growth of 36 percent."
Wal-Mart's stock gained more than 3 percent to trade at $71.69.

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Home Depot Inc HD earned $1.44 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $22.2 billion.
Analysts were expecting the do-it-yourself retailer to earn $1.33 per share on revenue of $21.8 billion.
Comparable store sales for the quarter were positive 5.8 percent, comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 6.3 percent.
Home Depot boosted its quarterly dividend to $0.89 per share from $0.69 and announced a new $15.0 billion share repurchase program.
Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president commented: "Our focus on providing localized and innovative product selection, improving the interconnected customer experience, and driving productivity resulted in record sales and net earnings for 2016."
Shares of Home Depot gained nearly 2 percent to trade at $145.57.

Macy's Inc M earned $2.02 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.52 billion.
Analysts were expecting the fashion retailing giant to earn $1.96 per share on revenue of $8.62 billion.
On an owned basis comparable sales fell 2.7 percent, comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis fell 2.1 percent.
Throughout fiscal 2016 Macy's opened 27 new stores and closed 66 stores.
The company plans on closing around 34 stores of the next few years on track to close 100 stores in total.
Terry J. Lundgren, Macy's chairman and CEO commented: "While 2016 was not the year we expected, we made significant progress on key initiatives that are starting to bear fruit. These include continued improvement in our digital platforms, the rollout of our new approach to fine jewelry and women's shoes, an increase in exclusive merchandise and the refinement of our clearance and off-price strategy."
Shares of Macy's gained more than 1.50 percent to trade at $32.82.

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